This invention relates generally to the field of material handling, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to a load form assembly for arranging bundles of materials into tiers and stacking the tiers for transport.
Manufacturers of corrugated paper products, such as corrugated boxes, trays and flat corrugated sheets, typically arrange their product in relatively small bundles of the product. The bundles are arranged in layers, or tiers, and the tiers and stacked vertically to form a rather large load of the product for transportation to customers. The load is usually stacked on a pallet and banded together to facilitate handling of the load.
In the past, the load forming process was typically performed by an operator, either completely by a manual procedure or with the assistance of semi-automatic equipment that aids in stacking the tiers. Automation has been applied to the arrangement of individual bundles within a tier with respect to the rotational orientation of each bundle. Such approach is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,388 issued to Martin. However, the overall process, especially the aspects of rotating bundles into a tier, continues primarily to be a manual labor intensive process. As such, the ability to stack bundles into tiered loads has lagged advances which have automated the shearing and stacking of material into the bundles.
There is a need for an improved approach to the placement of bundled materials into tiers and stacking the tiers into loads. It would be desirable to automatically orient the bundles into selected arrangements of bundles in stacked tiers and to stack the tiers onto pallets suitable for transit.
The present invention is for a load former assembly of the type that receives bundles of materials, collects the bundles into tiers of selected patterns and stacks the tiers. The load former assembly has a power conveyor, and a dual pin assembly is disposed near the entry of the power conveyor and serves to rotate successively received bundles horizontally on the power conveyor; rotation can be effected either in a first rotational direction or in an opposing second rotational direction. Depending upon the required rotation of each bundle, the dual pin assembly extends either a first pin or a second pin into the path of the individual bundle so that the bundle is pressed against the pin as the power conveyor conveys the bundle past the pin. Cylinders associated with the first and second pins are energized as required to extend one of the first or second pins into the path of the bundle, and the power conveyor rotates each bundle about the extended pin.
The cylinders associated with the first and second pins are supported for lateral displacement relative to the power conveyor so that the pins can be extended at selected lateral positions on the power conveyor, thereby accommodating for different sizes of bundle materials.
A single pin assembly having a single third pin is disposed downstream to the dual pin assembly for rotating the bundles in a rotational direction as may be required to achieve the completed rotation of the bundles. Past the single pin assembly is a positioning assembly which has a pusher plate that serves to move the rotated bundles to selected lateral positions on the power conveyor. Once past the positioning assembly station, the bundles are collected against a tier gate to form a tier of bundles, the tier having the bundles in a selected pattern achieved by the aforementioned bundle rotation.
The bundle tiers are stacked onto a pallet or the like, and a sheet dispenser assembly places slip sheets as required onto the tiers as the tiers are stacked vertically.
A computerized control system controls the components of the load former assembly so that the bundles are collected at the tier gate in the selected bundle pattern, and the tiers are appropriately stacked.
The objects, advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.